Old Faithful Falls to the Hype

After a rough start to the day and breakfast at Running Bear, we finally set out to Yellowstone around noon. The drive in was very pretty and we even saw an elk. The myriad of younger trees puzzled my family and myself until we later found out that there was a very big forest fire. It was pretty cool that the environment was so resilient and could recover so nicely. Forest fires are evident all over the park. Yellowstone is the epitome of nature. Our first stop was Old Faithful which is a very predictable  geyser. Finding parking was pretty difficult because many people go to see it every day.  It seemed more like going to a carnival than seeing one of nature's wonders. Everyone was walking around with ice-cream while looking for a seat. The way that the eruptions were scheduled made it also seem like a show. I did not really appreciate Old Faithful as much as I thought I would.  There was a Ranger there for a Junior Ranger speech, however the information he gave was easily found in the information given in the brochures handed out at the gate. The Junior Ranger program required a signature from a Ranger after a program to complete the booklet. I forgot my Junior Ranger program in the car, except the Rangers are usually nice so I just decided on telling the Ranger I was with my brother when we heard the speech. After the geyser finished spurting, we went to the visitor center to stamp our National Park Passport. 

After the geyser we went to black sand basin which was an area with a few hot springs. It smelled strongly of sulfur because of the minerals. The thermal active ground also had a few mini geysers that still spurted, however those were unpredictable. The area was also forested until it reached closer to the hot springs where the trees were dead probably because of the acidic nature of the hot spring water. I was becoming really hungry so I returned to the car to have the boxed lunch from Running Bear. The roast beef sandwich was okay except the actual meat itself was too salty. The black sand basin was very pretty.

After the black sand basin we went to the Grand Prismatic which was also a very big attraction in Yellowstone. Along the boardwalk there were two boys behind my sister and I that was blasting a song with the lyrics "Ni**a I'm Faded." They were rather annoying and I wanted to turn around and tell them that they are losers for thinking that they are cool. To be honest, if they went to school on Long Island they would have no friends especially because they were dressed like oranges. The Grand Prismatic was gorgeous because of it's bacteria mats that gave it its color. A random guy came up to my sister and me to tell us about an indent in one of the bacteria mat that was there because someone decided to go in. Before reaching the Grand Prismatic, along the boardwalk there was also another hot spring that was a really pretty blue. Within the hot spring you could see where the water was springing up because of bubbling in the water. At the end of the boardwalk you can see where the hot spring water flows in to the river. 

We finally reached our car and wanted to do an auto-tour called the Firehole Drive which is another main attraction. However the road was closed for some random reason. Instead of taking that drive, we decided to take the Fountain Flats drive. It was still really pretty but I was looking forward to the Firehole Drive even though I already saw pictures of it.  We decided to go to the Nez Perce creek after that drive where my siblings and I put our feet in. On my way back up to the car, I picked a few flowers even if it was illegal. It was only a few anyways but when I finally got in the car I realized I lost my Raybans. I even checked the area for about an hour. I went back to the car to check and picked up an apple because I was hungry. I threw the core down by a log because it can biodegrade. As I searched I accidentally walked through some black mud and accidentally kicked it up all over my leggings. After the second time I returned to the river to search, I saw a Raven take my core. I also saw another Raven that stole a baby bird from another bird's nest. 

This time down, the man that was getting ready for fishing for a while as well told me that if I didn't find my glasses by now I would never find it. He even suggested that I should just stick to 99 cent glasses from the pharmacy. I gave up soon after and we took another drive to a waterfall. While my sister and I were sitting there my brother asked me what I would do if he found the glasses. It actually turned out that they were in the trunk all along. They ended up there where I pretended to hide in the trunk as a fugitive. We returned to West Yellowstone for tapas at Cafe Madriz. I also really wanted some home made ice-cream so we went to Arrowleaf Ice-cream and Grill. This place was pretty great because they blended toppings into the ice-cream. It was one of the top ice-creams I ever had. We then went back to the hotel for the night.